EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

[thchardcore]

There goes my check. Thanks.

[Bassa-Bassa]

I've read elsewhere you'd need a downscaler for that result, mind. Which makes sense, as the specs of the Exa system are meant to never go below 640x480.

[Ms. Tea]

Yeah, the exA outputs 480p via DVI/HDMI. You need to transcode to VGA for 31kHz, and use a downscaler to get 15kHz.

[SuperPang]

That photo may well be running in 480p with the scanline option on.

I've got an Exa running on my yoko NNC with a cheap DVI-VGA DAC off Amazon.

[Bassa-Bassa]

That photo may well be running in 480p with the scanline option on.

No way the grid is simulated this well at 480p.

You can get this result because the game's originally 320x240, but I wonder what you can manage to get with something like Aces Kai.

[SuperPang]

Aces is in the Vewlix because Kai mode would be letterboxed which would be jank. I think there's an option to turn different modes off but that's an expensive way to play the original! You can definitely do that with Akai Katana, if you just wanted to play the port of the original in 480p for lols.

Exa are really good with the screen options. You can play a lot of the hori games on a rotated Vewlix if for some reason you wanted to.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Sega Naomi v2 I/O jvs to jamma adapter would work just fine with an Exa-Arcadia setup with those old school candy cabs with low-res monitors (i.e. -- Astro City, Taito Egret, Egret 2, etc).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Bassa-Bassa]

Weren't all the NAOMIs analog video-only? Anyway, at best you'd get an interlaced signal for 15khz, far from optimal with low-res games like Batsugun.

[rtw]

NAOMI's are 480P with a DIP switch setting to enable 480i

[Bassa-Bassa]

So indeed the NAOMIs output analog only and the adapter is just for connections, not for signal. Doesn't seem that it would do much for an Exa system, though you actually have to add the issue of physical connection standards (over the digital signal and the refresh ones) to get a proper 15khz Batsugun. Way too much of a hassle for a new version of an old game, if you ask me.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

On the Exa-Arcadia site, there's no listing to buy the Exa-Arcadia hardware by itself. Did the site stop selling the hardware by itself? And are there other reputable/reliable sites that sell the Exa-Arcadia hardware?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[parodius]

Uh? Was looking at it just a few minutes ago.

https://exa.ac/product/exa-arcadia-hardware/

[Nomax]

On the Exa-Arcadia site, there's no listing to buy the Exa-Arcadia hardware by itself. Did the site stop selling the hardware by itself? And are there other reputable/reliable sites that sell the Exa-Arcadia hardware?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Sometimes, items disappear from their online shop, and reappear a bit later.

Besides exA-Arcadia in Japan, there are several US distributors, and Red Sun Systems in Europe: http://www.redsuns.be/

So, it depends on where you live.

[spmbx]

Never realized it was excluding tax, so for Europe you're looking at 5.5-6k eur for a pc with a batsugun drive. Absolutely mental.

[famitsu1]

Beep Shop in Japan apparently carries the EXA game kits.

[seattlexc]

Does anyone know any arcades near Los Angeles that carry Exa Arcade games? I saw a listing online that the Round1 in Burbank had 4 games, but I just went there and they got replaced with other candy cab games.

[maximo310]

Does anyone know any arcades near Los Angeles that carry Exa Arcade games? I saw a listing online that the Round1 in Burbank had 4 games, but I just went there and they got replaced with other candy cab games.

I haven't seen any in the other Round1 locations local to me ( Lakewood & City of Industry), one of my friends said that the Eastbridge Round1 ( in NoCal) used to have a couple of EXA cabs, but those got swapped out with Castle of Shikigami 2 a few months ago.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There's a youtube video of Touhou Scarlet Diablo arcade stg title running on the Exa-Arcadia platform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQvl_ONoMk4

Looks great running in 1080p @ 60fps framerate presentation.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[shmupsrocks]

Video unavailable here.

[system11]

I got myself Scarlet Diablo for my birthday

[ryu]

I got myself Scarlet Diablo for my birthday

Happy birthday!

How does it compare to the mainline games? I wonder who got contracted by Exa to develop this.

[legolas119]

hi, i just discovered ex-Arcadia games. Some of them it seems that aren't available on others systems...so the only way to play them is to buy the expensive arcade board and then the expensive games? I don't have a cabinet so i canìt play them in any case. For example Axel City 2, is it available on different system?
thanks

[CStarFlare]

I got myself Scarlet Diablo for my birthday

Happy birthday!

How does it compare to the mainline games? I wonder who got contracted by Exa to develop this.

It's an upgrade version of Fantastic Danmaku Festival by the original team.

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Fantasti ... u_Festival

The original was pretty good, but not as deep in scoring as a lot of mainline games are. The port adds a new dimension to the meter that in the original just triggered the occasional item auto-collect (which I assume is also a rank meter) and reworks a lot of the boss fights. Looks pretty neat!

FDF is on Steam, if you're curious.

[SuperPang]

Which is the better of the two Exa versions? Never tried Touhou. Don’t have a PC.

[marus]

Which is the better of the two Exa versions? Never tried Touhou. Don’t have a PC.

I've played FDF 2 (aka Perfect Sakura Fantastica on Exa) a ton. I have much less hours on FDF 1 (aka Scarlet Diablo), but I've cleared it a number of times. Personally I like FDF 2 way more, although FDF 1 is still fun too. And like CStarFlare said, Scarlet Diablo revamps a lot of stuff from the PC game, so that may change my opinion when I eventually play it.

I'd break it down to the following points:

FDF 1 / Scarlet Diablo:

• More difficult for survival, in a good way. The boss patterns are mostly all fun and creative.
• Some jank difficulty spikes here and there, but the game gives you plenty of bombs to deal with parts you have trouble with.
• Not much depth to the scoring - a lot of the Exa changes are around revamping the scoring, but from videos I've watched my opinion's mixed on them (though I'll reserve judgment until I play it myself)

FDF 2 / Perfect Sakura Fantastica:

• The game has a "Cherry Border" system that can be abused for a cheesy 1cc if you don't care about score. Basically any time you activate a Cherry Border, you get access to a free hit and a screen clear for a limited time. If you know what you're doing you can activate them very frequently, so that you're never in much danger.
• Much more interesting scoring - you really need to pay attention to the timing of when you graze bullets and pick up point items, which makes for some fun routing.
• Also when you play for score you can no longer abuse Cherry Borders for survival, making survival as hard or harder than FDF 1.
• Has two additional modes (Extra and Phantasm), while FDF1 only has Extra mode. They're basically bonus stages with a really long boss, and are a lot of fun (particularly since Touhou is better known for their boss fights than stage design).

If you're choosing between the two then my vote would be for Perfect Sakura Fantastica, although if you don't care about scoring at all then you might like Scarlet Diablo more. Though I also think they're designed similarly enough that if you like one then you'll probably like the other. I'm really looking forward to trying out Scarlet Diablo eventually.

I got myself Scarlet Diablo for my birthday

Happy Birthday! That's a nice present to treat yourself to!

[Sumez]

hi, i just discovered ex-Arcadia games. Some of them it seems that aren't available on others systems...so the only way to play them is to buy the expensive arcade board and then the expensive games? I don't have a cabinet so i canìt play them in any case. For example Axel City 2, is it available on different system?
thanks

Hit the nail on the head lol.
Exa exclusive means you don't get to play the game unless you have infinite pockets

[Arino]

hi, i just discovered ex-Arcadia games. Some of them it seems that aren't available on others systems...so the only way to play them is to buy the expensive arcade board and then the expensive games? I don't have a cabinet so i canìt play them in any case. For example Axel City 2, is it available on different system?
thanks

Don't get them mixed up. A lot of games on EXA have new exclusive modes that are only on EXA. It would be lame otherwise to release an indie game on a new arcade hardware that had already been on Steam for years.

Some people just buy them if they want an exclusive that's only on EXA so far and if they are sure they want to dedicate a lot of time to that version. For instance, someone told me he bought it for that EXA exclusive version of Akai Katana because he really likes the game and will put hundreds or thousands of hours into it and play nothing else, so for him it's worth it.
Btw also from what I've heard, IIRC, what some people do is they only get the mobo and then you can hack it and get all games for free basically, illegally. Only the mobo by itself is still expensive though.

I wonder what will be new about Air Gallet!

[CStarFlare]

snip

I'll throw my two cents in here - FDF2 is a better game than 1, but the exa release is a very close port of the Steam version. FDF/Scarlet Diablo look to be quite different - if you had to justify buying one for your arcade cab, Scarlet Diablo seems like a better choice.

[SuperPang]

If you're choosing between the two then my vote would be for Perfect Sakura Fantastica, although if you don't care about scoring at all then you might like Scarlet Diablo more. Though I also think they're designed similarly enough that if you like one then you'll probably like the other. I'm really looking forward to trying out Scarlet Diablo eventually.

I'll throw my two cents in here - FDF2 is a better game than 1, but the exa release is a very close port of the Steam version. FDF/Scarlet Diablo look to be quite different - if you had to justify buying one for your arcade cab, Scarlet Diablo seems like a better choice.

Food for thought. Thank you both. I fancy sinking my teeth into a new arcade shmup. Fixeight Exa Label has put the cat amongst the pigeons though. I like what they're doing with that and trap15's take on Batsugun is hella fun.

[legolas119]

hi, i just discovered ex-Arcadia games. Some of them it seems that aren't available on others systems...so the only way to play them is to buy the expensive arcade board and then the expensive games? I don't have a cabinet so i canìt play them in any case. For example Axel City 2, is it available on different system?
thanks

Hit the nail on the head lol.
Exa exclusive means you don't get to play the game unless you have infinite pockets

understood...

thank you!